Clouds kill FPS in 2.3

[Guest]

rob@angermanagement.com

 

I'm not alone, I know others that get the same treatment/threats ... it's not a "huge" problem and it's not representative of a majority, its a few here and there ... and as far as I know, no one has actually been killed yet

 

Basically don't use LM forums to vent ... use something else, go hiking, biking, kick boxing, lift weights, auto racing   ... whatever it takes.  Certainly report issues, but be receptive to solutions (permanent or temporary or even no solution) that one may not want to hear.  The more open one's mind is (regardless of one's technical background), the higher the odds of finding a workable solution.  For those that can't compromise or the compromise is "too much", then say your piece respectfully and don't repeat it in 15 different threads and add all kinds of irrelevant drama. 

 

You really don't need a $1000 or $3000 video card to enjoy this hobby regardless of flight sim platform ... there are a billion an 1 things you can do with a $200 video card and there are a billion and 4 things you can do with a $1000 video card.  It's not the video card that's the show stopper, it's your mind.

 

Cheers, Rob. 

[Jude Bradley 660]

In the meantime until there is a new update from LM I have found following solution for my installation :

 

Rex4 textures 512 32bit

ASN max cloud layers 3

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=120

 

Flying over UK from London to Edinburgh today gives me stable 28-32 frames although the south was nearly overcast. Without TBM change I only got 12-16 FPS.

 

The flight was done using the Razbam Metro, ORBX ENG and SCO and ASN actual weather (20:00z). P3D setting frames unlimited, sync and triple buffer on.

Thanks Michael,I'll try that  

 

[Guest]

Cloud layers 2 also works well.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[theskyisthelimit 48]

In case anyone hasnt seen a side by side comparison of the differences, visually, of the old v2.2 cloud.fx vs the 2.3 vs the 2.3 modified (commented out visulize line).. here is a gif loop showing the changes..  Depending on the scenery/addon area/weather config, the drop for me was drastic even on the 780ti with 2.2 vs 2.3.. looking forward to the hotfix from LM

 

 

This was done on a 650ti (test system).. Cloud Density on high.  Even with my main system iand the 780ti I experience a similar drop going from one version to the other.  Interesting visual differences.  This with the REX 4 textures for clouds, default P3D everything else in this case.  Ill be doing a few other comparisons later via this link.  

[pilotter 290]

Voila 

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

In case anyone hasnt seen a side by side comparison of the differences, visually, of the old v2.2 cloud.fx vs the 2.3 vs the 2.3 modified (commented out visulize line).. here is a gif loop showing the changes..  Depending on the scenery/addon area/weather config, the drop for me was drastic even on the 780ti with 2.2 vs 2.3.. looking forward to the hotfix from LM

 

Thanks a lot for this comparison, I think it clears up the matter a bit. 2.3 is obviously drawing a lot more clouds which is probably why they are a lot more taxing on the system now, but I noticed that the cloud rendering with the volumise effect looks broken. There's that cloud on the top right of the C172 that looks like it was inverted.

[nathanpinard 0]

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=120

 

Interesting. I haven't seen this tweak suggested yet. Curious to see others results.

[Alan_A 1,650]

 

 

In case anyone hasnt seen a side by side comparison of the differences,

 

Thanks very much for the side-by-side.  Really appreciated.

 

To all: here's a technically naive question - since the cloud draw is clearly so much heavier in 2.3, isn't the easiest fix to move the cloud coverage density slider from medium to low?  Or would that produce an overall worse effect.  Am planning to try it myself as soon as I can but was wondering if anyone already had.  

[nicksort 8]

Thanks very much for the side-by-side.  Really appreciated.

 

To all: here's a technically naive question - since the cloud draw is clearly so much heavier in 2.3, isn't the easiest fix to move the cloud coverage density slider from medium to low?  Or would that produce an overall worse effect.  Am planning to try it myself as soon as I can but was wondering if anyone already had.

Alan - Good point

[theskyisthelimit 48]

Thanks very much for the side-by-side.  Really appreciated.

 

To all: here's a technically naive question - since the cloud draw is clearly so much heavier in 2.3, isn't the easiest fix to move the cloud coverage density slider from medium to low?  Or would that produce an overall worse effect.  Am planning to try it myself as soon as I can but was wondering if anyone already had.  

For me going from high to medium made little difference, so i opted to leave it on high. (780ti + 4930k)

Interesting. I haven't seen this tweak suggested yet. Curious to see others results.

 

I already had mine on 120, so for me it wasnt a game changer unfortunately (with the 780ti)

[Michael Moe 497]

I haven´t found a big changer in performance in P3dV2.3. Did some test in EGLL UK2000 gate 303 with a 737 cold and dark and having around 24-26 fps regardless of weather settings via ASN . Layers at 3. I am also wondering if Hybrid mode in UK is using more VAS with vector than using FTX England (Europe) enabled in FTX Central. It did look like it in FSX (200-300MB) so will test this also in P3D.

 

Performance in heavy jets in England/London/Southampton can get my system down to 13-15 fps sometimes  and on west approach towards Vancouver with PNW/FSDT but i will be happy having a sweet spot of 20-22 fps in P3D as it is very very smooth with high detailed textures loaded under neeth me.

 

In Colorado KDEN with flightbeam and we are at 26-30 fps on approach(30-40fps on ground) with just FTX Global . Amazing performance makes this area a must for P3D.

 

GTX780SC ACX EVGA@4,7-4770K

No tweaks at all

 

Michael

[pincopanco 5]

In the meantime until there is a new update from LM I have found following solution for my installation :

 

Rex4 textures 512 32bit

ASN max cloud layers 3

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=120

 

Flying over UK from London to Edinburgh today gives me stable 28-32 frames although the south was nearly overcast. Without TBM change I only got 12-16 FPS.

 

The flight was done using the Razbam Metro, ORBX ENG and SCO and ASN actual weather (20:00z). P3D setting frames unlimited, sync and triple buffer on.

Why 120 and not 90 or 210 ... or 1800?

[Guest Novation]

I will be keeping safe a copy of the 2.3 cloud shader file in case LM revert to clouds more like 2.2 which look far less realistic, as far as I'm concerned. The structures appear far more voluminous and realistic in 2.3, and don't suffer the hard base of the earlier versions and I don't notice a vast difference in performance from 2.2 to 2.3... in fact overall performance is up, even if the clouds do pull it back down a bit, so its a compromise I'm happy to bear.

 

There is without doubt more going on in the sky, which explains some of the loss and as LM has indicated there may be some rendering issues that can be corrected to improve things; I just hope they don't ruin things in the process.

 

As for death threats etc. its quite shocking the depths some in the FS community will sink to. I had personal abuse after beta testing a certain scenery companies products, and that was enough for me. I naïvely thought FS was a nice gentle hobby, but it does seem to attract the freaks, as much as any gaming community... more so in some cases.

[Nyxx 6,994]

2.3 look fantastic the 2.2 version looks like fsx. The main thing that looks so stunning about 2.3 are the clouds.

[Jim Robinson 122]

Death threats and whack jobs? It'll only get better when FSX comes out on Steam!

 

I agree that I'm seeing better cloud performance in v2.3 - up to a point. Then it's like that one "cloud that broke the camel's back" get's rendered and everything goes pear shaped all of the sudden. I go from 33 locked at 33 in what seems to be quite heavy cloud cover and then something happens and frames drop to to 7-8 without much noticeable difference in the coverage density. I've tried the cloud.fx fix, didn't help. I just tried TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=120, I found it worse if anything. I've turned cloud density down to minimum while frames are tanked and it maybe jumps up to 13-14 FPS at best. I see a rhythmic stutter when I'm in "tanked mode", like a brief pause exactly once per second. Outside of "tanked mode" the sim is like butter and the rhythmic pauses are not there. I thought maybe it was ASN but I can get the same effect if I load the gray & rainy weather theme. I do think LM is on the right track though, i don't wanna go back either. I just hope they can figure out what's causing this and get it sorted out. In the meantime I thank the hifi gods for historical weather so I can pick and choose what kind of weather to fly in.